Homemade whole wheat pizza!

Aloha and welcome to my first blog post, I hope you'll enjoy what you find here and I look forward to hearing from you.

Tonight, its pizza for dinner.  I've had success making pizza dough in my bread maker and have been experimenting with increasing amounts of whole wheat flour and lower amounts of white flour.  Part of the reason is for the health benefits of whole wheat versus processed white flour, and because I'm South Beaching it and whole wheat is "allowed" and white flour isn't. (I'm generally a rule follower, but less and less as I get older!)

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (made in bread maker on dough setting); makes enough for 3-4 ~10 inch pizzas
For 1/3 of dough recipe (one whole pizza crust),  approximately 490 calories, 94 grams carbs, 7 grams fat, 16 grams protein
Ingredients added in order to the bread pan:

• 1 cup warm water (plus around 2 TBSP more as dough was mixing; you might need more or less depending on your flour and environmental conditions)
• 1 tsp table salt
• 1 TBSP honey
• 1 TBSP olive oil (plus more for coating the dough balls if you freeze some and for brushing before cooking)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1-2 TBSP Italian seasonings (courser grind is best)
• 2 tsps active dry yeast (placed in a small indentation in the top of the flour-don't let it touch any liquid)

Method:
My machine takes about 1 hour 45 minutes to make the dough.  If you don't use a bread machine, I'm sure you can make it by hand kneading or using a dough hook in your mixer.  The dough is smooth, not too sticky when ready.  Remove dough from pan with floured hands and divide into 3 (or 4) portions.  If you are freezing dough balls, place them in a bowl with enough olive oil to coat them and then place each in a freezer bag and pop in the freezer.  I've kept them in the freezer up to a month, but I'm pretty sure you could double that time without any problem. 

To use the frozen dough, take a packet out of the freezer and place in the fridge the night before.  An hour or 2 before you are ready to "dress" your pizza, remove the dough from the bag, press/roll out to 8-12 inches depending on how you divided the original batch and how thick you like your pizza (I like mine thin and crispy) and wrap loosely in plastic wrap (it will rise/puff as it warms up).  Before you "dress" it, roll/stretch it out again as it will have retracted some.

To use immediately after making, roll/stretch it out, wait 10 minutes and repeat.  Then add your toppings but don't overload it or you won't be able to get it into and out of the oven very easily.  Brush the outside rim with olive oil.

Cook in a preheated 500 degree oven on a pizza stone (if you have one) that has been dusted with cornmeal.  If you don't have a pizza stone, I've used a pizza pan and, when having friends over for "make your own" pizza night, I've used cookie sheets and anything that would hold up in a hot oven.  The cornmeal helps facilitate moving the pizza onto and off the stone or whatever you are using.

Bake for about 7 minutes, plus or minus depending on your oven and how crispy you like it.  If not using a stone, it can take considerably longer to get a crisp crust.

I made a batch today.  As I said, I like thin, crispy pizzas so I divided the dough into thirds, popped 2 in the freezer and used one for dinner.   Mine never seem to turn out round which is ok with me.

Here is the dough after I rolled it out.

Here is the garlic chicken cooking that I used on tonight's pizza

And, the finished product!

For toppings tonight, I used 1/4 cup store bought pizza sauce (dismayed when I read the label that there was sugar in it but, it was too late to make some homemade), 1/2 cup shredded part skim mozzarella, 2/3 of a chicken breast sauteed in EVOO, lots of chopped garlic and italian seasonings, about 3/4 cup mushrooms, 1/2 cup green bell pepper, and 2 large handfuls of fresh spinach thrown on top the last 2 minutes of cooking. 

I served it with a salad of fresh chard, chopped and dressed with an asian vinaigrette.  The meal got a thumbs up from the hubby.  Next time, I think I'll wilt the spinach a bit before adding.  It wasn't truly South Beach legal because of the white flour, honey, and sugar in the pizza sauce.  However, I think it was healthy "enough"!

Readers, what are some of your favorite toppings for pizza?  Let me know how it turned out if you make the dough by hand.